1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to, and more particularly to job administration apparatuses, job administration systems and computer-readable storage media, and more particularly to a job administration apparatus and a job administration system that employ electronic document administration techniques and security techniques for electronic documents such as printing documents and facsimile transmission documents, and to a computer-readable storage medium that stores a program for causing a computer to function as such a job administration apparatus and job administration system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent technological developments have enabled the size and cost of computers to be further reduced and the performance of the computers to be further improved. Consequently, computers are utilized in various fields. A user can create various documents using the computer, such as a personal computer and a work station, store the created documents in the computer, and print the created document if necessary. In addition, in the recent computers, it is possible to send the created document by a facsimile transmission without having to scan the created document.
In addition, networking of computer systems have become common, thereby making it extremely easy to carry out a process such as making an access from one computer A to another computer B via a network and making a reference to data stored in the computer B.
In view of such technical background, a system administrator (or system manager) or a system operator must take into consideration security problems, such as an unauthorized user participating in a network operation and referring to data via the network.
For example, a Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-101169 proposes a document administration system for simply and positively detecting a status of an electronic document and efficiently carrying out a masking process with respect to the electronic document.
A Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2002-298122 proposes an information disclosure system that sets an information disclosing region and an information non-disclosing region depending on a data inspection right level of a system user.
However, in the network system, not only may an unauthorized user unexpectedly participate in the network operation and directly refer to a file (electronic data) that is stored in the computer, but also indirectly acquire the information of the file from an operation log or the like of the computer.
For example, when carrying out a printing using a printer, data to be printed (a print job) is stored in a queue of a printer server, and it is possible to know the user who carried out the printing and the data printed by the user by referring to the print job.
On the other and, when carrying out a facsimile transmission, a facsimile transmission job is stored in the queue, and it is possible to know the user who carried out the facsimile transmission and a destination to which the facsimile transmission was made by referring to the facsimile transmission job. Hence, there is a possibility of the destination facsimile number leaking to an unauthorized user. From the point of view of information management, such problems must be dealt with case in computer systems that treat customer data and data peculiar to the operator.